Renai LeMay

Renai LeMay is the publisher of Delimiter, a media outlet focused on technology in the Australian context. He has covered, among other topics, the ins and outs of the NBN debate for most of the past decade.

As everyone with any knowledge of online piracy will admit, the real problem isn't piracy or even getting money to starving artists: it's middlemen distributors and the availability of content.

Australians wouldn't need to hit up BitTorrent every week in record numbers for the latest episode of Game of Thrones if Foxtel hadn't locked it up so completely.

Attorney-General George Brandis and his roundtable of corporate representatives should not be able to decide the future of Australians' access to content without the ordinary punter having their say too.

The key to starting a national debate about government subsidies of industry, it appears, is to be in an industry which does something tangible.

Chocolate, tinned goods, cars - all viable options. Even better if you have an iconic brand which goes back to the days of Dad and Dave.

If you don't have this kind of product, then not only will your proposal not be seriously considered by the politicians in your sector - because there's no photo opportunity - but worse, it won't even be covered by the mainstream media.